First Day Down

Location: Louisville, KY (High 63, Low 41)

Today was our first day at the facility in Jeffersonville, IN. We got to sleep in a little later than a normal workday with our alarm set to go off at 4:30 am. The bus was supposed to leave at 6:30 so we wanted to leave ourselves plenty of time to get everything together.The coach pulled in about ten after six, which actually surprised us and we both jumped to look at the clock, thinking that we might be running late. But nope, he was just early.

The ride to the facility went pretty smoothly. We had a few stop and go moments on the highway, but it’s amazing how stress free those times are when we’re sitting in the seats of a bus as opposed to driving our own vehicle. We arrived at the fulfillment center in around 35 minutes. In hindsight, that was the fastest part of the day…it reminded me of that saying, hurry up and wait!

So for the rest of the day…the positives…our badges worked after they adjusted something in the system. There were some people whose badges still weren’t working when we were trying to head out through the turnstiles at the end of the day, so we were two of the lucky ones. We also got lockers first thing in the morning, so that was a pleasant surprise.

The biggest thing that wasn’t a positive for me personally was finding out that we weren’t going to be in picking after all. I’m trying to look at the bright side of that, but I really was looking forward to getting some walking in. The “powers that be” changed their minds yesterday and decided that the only people they wanted to put in picking were the campers who had picked in Campbellsville. That was announced right after they passed out all the locker assignments. (The lockers are about the same size as the one we had, but we each have one so we have twice the room.)

So after sitting around some more, in first one, and then a second, break room for about an hour or more, we were divided up into teams for a tour of the facility. The building is really huge. There are two downstairs break rooms and at least one other upstairs near the packing department. They are all full size break rooms with microwaves, vending machines, refrigerators, etc.

We stopped in the upstairs break room to drop off our lunches and then headed into the packing department. We were given a little overview of each part of the floor. Some of the stations seemed familiar, but many of the processes looked new. It sounds like we will be moved around the different jobs much like we were in receiving, so I will report more on the various duties as I work them. Today we worked on the jewelry prep line. That entailed taking a tote, which might have a couple or up to fifteen, twenty different pieces of jewelry in little plastic bags. For each piece of jewelry, we would take the earrings or bracelet or whatever and place it in a black jewelry box and then replace it in the tote. After boxing each piece, the totes are placed back on a cart and eventually taken off to a packer.

That was the extent of our work today. If we worked, by which I mean actually had our hands on the product, for a solid hour, that was it. At 2 pm we met with the leadership teams and had the opportunity to ask questions. We also found out our schedule for the rest of the week. And then we headed out to catch our bus back to the Expo.

First work day down! Twenty or so to go!!